Pitching stars again in SF Giants’ series-clinching win over Dodgers

The Giants had a pretty good first 15 games. Imagine how special they would have been had they synched their pitching and hitting. When one has been there, the other has not.

MLB: Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong throws to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first inning of their baseball game at AT&T Park. (Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports)

Nonetheless, Wednesday night’s 2-1 victory assured a second series victory against the Dodgers this season, a winning homestand and a 10-5 record – nothing to sneeze at in any 15-game run.

Ryan Vogelsong had his best game by far in 2014, spring training and regular season: six-plus innings, one run. He carried a shutout into the sixth inning, when he made a huge mistake and walked Maholm with two outs. Vogelsong paid for the misdeed with Dee Gordon’s RBI triple, which tied the game 1-1.

Vogelsong completed the Giants’ best of three turns through the rotation. The five combined to hold the Rockies and Dodgers to 11 runs in 33 1/3 innings, a 2.97 ERA. Ultimately, the Giants will need that more than anything.

The pitching led the Giants to a 4-1 mark in the five games, all decided by one run.

On Wednesday they fielded a lineup with three hitters below .200, none of them Vogelsong

With two outs in the seventh inning of a 1-1 game and Joaquin Arias on second base, the Dodgers had lefty J.P. Howell walk .183-hitting Hunter Pence so he could face .172-hitting Pablo Sandoval. The Panda floofed a soft single through the middle to foil the strategy and give the Giants a 2-1 lead.

Sandoval hit another soft single in the third inning, his 10th hit of the year in the Giants’ 15th game, to contribute to a scoring rally against lefty Paul Maholm. Buster Posey got the RBI with a single.

Vogelsong left in the seventh with two on and nobody out after he hit Hanley Ramirez in the hand, forcing the Dodgers shortstop out of a 1-1 game, and allowing an Adrian Gonzalez single. X-rays on Ramirez were negative.

Jean Machi saved Vogelsong by striking out Matt Kemp and getting Juan Uribe to hit into a home-to-first double play.

Before the game, the Giants activated Jeremy Affeldt from the disabled list and reduced their bench to four players by demoting outfielder Juan Perez. Bochy essentially had three subs because Brandon Crawford had a tight hamstring, which he tweaked running the bases in the 10th inning Tuesday night.

Bochy had Arias start at short as a precaution, and Arias made an immediate impact in the first inning. He knelt to backhand a Hanley Ramirez grounder in the hole, wheeled and threw to second to start a double play.

The Giants won – and the fans lost – when the umpires in New York spent 4 hours, 25 minutes in the second inning to uphold first-base umpire Seth Buckminster’s ruling that Kemp was out on a Vogelsong pickoff throw. That cost Dodgers manager Don Mattingly his lone replay.

Vogelsong was no worse for the delay. He tossed several warmups, wrote a thank-you note, counted the fans in the Arcade then retired Andre Ethier on a comebacker.

Vogelsong had an interesting first three innings. He allowed a runner on each yet faced the minimum because of a double play, pickoff and caught stealing on a busted hit-and-run.